How a flow runs
1
It starts
A message matches the flow’s trigger — a keyword, or the customer’s first-ever
message — or something starts it deliberately: the Start flow step in an
automation, or a Connect flow node in another flow.
2
It advances
The engine walks from node to node, sending as it goes, until it reaches a node that
needs the customer: a set of buttons, a list, a question, a file, a location, or a
payment.
3
It waits
The run sits on that node until the customer replies. Every answer it captures is
stored on the run and can be read later as
{{ vars.<name> }}.4
It ends
At an End node, at a Handoff to a person, at a Hand to AI agent, or by
connecting to another flow. It can also time out, or be paused when one of your team
replies by hand.
One active run per contact
A contact can be in one flow at a time. That is why Connect flow ends the current run before starting the target rather than nesting — and why an accidental loop between two flows terminates instead of growing. It also means a flow that nobody finishes would block that contact from starting another one, so a sweep closes runs that have gone quiet. The cutoff is 24 hours of silence by default.A human reply pauses the bot. When somebody on your team sends a message to a
contact who is mid-flow, the run is marked paused by agent and stops advancing. The
customer is talking to a person now.
Flow or automation?
They work together. A common shape is an automation on First message from a contact
that tags the person and then uses Start flow to hand them to a welcome menu.
The flows list
Flows in the sidebar lists every flow as a card: its name, its status — Draft, Active or Archived — its description or a summary of its trigger, and how many times it has run. Export, Edit and Delete sit at the bottom of each card, and Import in the header reads an exported flow back in as a new draft. Only an active flow answers anything. A draft is skipped, including by an automation’s Start flow step. New flow offers three ways in: describe it and let the AI build it, start from a template (Welcome menu, FAQ bot, Lead capture), or start blank with a name.Next
The flow editor
Palette, canvas, inspector, entry node, activating.
Node types
All 21 nodes with their settings and outgoing paths.
Waits, hand-offs and runs
Parking a run, unmatched replies, timeouts, and the runs screen.
Testing and Build with AI
The simulator, and drafting a flow from a sentence.